Introduction, Specifications, and Pricing

Seemingly, Scythe has been making CPU coolers forever at this point, and it never fails that they can impress the masses, and have many successes in the past. Largest of which has to be the Mugen series of coolers, but they have also made waves with Katana, Shuriken, and Ninja coolers as well. No matter what your needs may be, looking for a huge air cooler, looking for something low-profile for an SFF or HTPC build, or just about everything in between, Scythe has a solution to fit your requirements.

As a company which is ever expanding in their products, Scythe has developed a new line of coolers, with a new name to go along with it. The idea here is to deliver a compact cooler, which will fit in tighter spaces, yet make the cooler as easy to install as possible. At the same time, make sure to keep clear of things around the cooler, mainly by offsetting the base of the cooler, yet develop something that performs well enough that potential customers will want to use it. This is the dream of all CPU cooler makers, but in most instances, you do give up something in the end.

Today we bring you the Scythe Byakko, and the only reference to the name is that it means white tiger to the Eastern countries. It is one of four symbols of the Chinese constellation, which represents the West or the autumn season. This makes some sense as with that; we can correlate the west wind or the cooler temperatures that come with the autumn season. While we are in no way hip to many other cultural traditions, we can see where the wind and cooler temperatures could reference both. Enough of the cultural ramblings and associations from a guy who is only guessing as to why Scythe calls this CPU cooler the Byakko, and get down to business and show you what it is all about.

The Scythe Byakko, also known by the model number SBYK-1000, is a cooler compatible with Intel sockets LGA775, LGA115X, and LGA1366. For AMD, the Byakko will fit on AM2 through AM4 motherboards, as well as FM1, 2, and 2+. Mounting is done in one of two ways. The cooler is shipped with Intel push-pins, or you have the option to use a cross bar, which locks onto AMD socket brackets. Dimensionally, the tower cooler is 102mm wide, 130mm tall, and 83mm thick, and weighs only 415 grams. The stack of fins gets its heat from the three 6mm diameter heat pipes, which get their heat from the nickel-plated copper base. The fins are made of aluminum, and there are forty-four of them in this compact design.

The fan which cools this tower is a Scythe Slip Stream 92 PWM fan which sports the SY9225SL12H-CSP model number. OF course, this fan is 92mm square, but the thickness is normal at 25mm too. Noise levels are rated from just seven to twenty-eight adjusted decibels, and airflow is rated from a measly 6.7CFM at the low-end, up to 46.55CFM at the top end. The fan speed can range from 300 to 2300 RPM while drawing 0.16A on the 12V line. Static pressure is decent too, with a maximum rating of 1.93 mmH2O, and this is done by having the seven blades suspended with a sleeve bearing.

Scythe was sure to mention that this CPU cooler was compact, easy to use, and is still able to perform reasonably, but there was no indication of what to expect with its pricing. That leads us to a bit of sticker shock, but not in the way you would expect. Typically, this shock comes from a company which demands a hefty price for their product, but in this instance, it is the lack of money involved that has us stunned. To obtain the Byakko, you can shop through both Amazon and Newegg. Amazon lists the Byakko for only $22.95, which is quite the deal already. For those who wish to save a couple more dollars, look to Newegg, as they list the same Byakko cooler for $19.95 at the time we are writing this.

With such a small investment to consider, in our mind, the Byakko just has to do better than stock coolers to be a success, but you will see soon enough, for such a small cooler, it is more than capable of contending with the competition.

PRICING: You can find the product discussed for sale below. The prices listed are valid at the time of writing, but can change at any time. Click the link below to see real-time pricing for the best deal:

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